running with pencilsIt must have started with crayons: Crayola, usually the small box. The crayons aged, were much abused, broken, the palettes mixed. Some fell into a heating grate and cooked, perfuming the house.

Pencils were okay, kind of boring, and when sharpened, allegedly dangerous. Be careful with that, you could put your eye out!

The pencils moved between blue lines on faded gray speckled tablet paper, letters into words into sentences into paragraphs, the user marveling that letters formed words which formed language, and that the human brain could process such.

The writer eventually tended to produce long sentences - despite the fact that adjectives and adverbs had been sacrificed. Long sentences could be redundant in a vibe of Short Attention Span Lit. Punctuation might also be unpopular.

Pens were ballpoint or felt-tip or fountain type, multi-colored inks flowing and exploding between journal covers in stream-of-consciousness rant. The pens and pencils co-mingled, consorting in various desk drawers.

Word processors were not as annoying as typewriters, and more convenient - though either could take away the magic and rhythm of the organic flowing pen – typing somehow being the antithesis of same.

In ink I used to write and draw on my denim-covered cardboard school binder; I kept personal journals therein. Dear History Instructor Becker, if you are not dead and are reading this, please return my confiscated journals. I need the notes.

Works include:"Tina and Lucille" in The Mammoth Book of on the Road (Carroll and Graf/Robinson) "Screen Play" in The Mammoth Book of Best New Erotica, Volume Five (Running Press) and The Mammoth Book of the Best of the Best New Erotica (Running Press) "Bodies of Water" in Amazons: Sexy Tales of Strong Women (Thunders Mouth Press) "Marilyn" in Wicked: Sexy Tales of Legendary Lovers (Cleis Press)"Cashmeres Must Die" in Leather, Lace and Lust (Berkeley Books) and The Mammoth Book of Best New Erotica, Volume Four (Carroll and Graf) "The Road Killers" in The Wild Ones: Hot Biker Tales (starbooks) "Whitewood" in Foreign Affairs: Erotic Travel Tales (Cleis Press) "Miami Meet" and "Heat and Ash" in The Mammoth Book of Quick and Dirty ('erotic quickies') (Running Press)The collection: Strays and Other Stories (Renaissance Books)Visit Amazon: Strays and Other Stories by A. F. Waddell